RVCA Junior Challenge hits JBay full speed ahead

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 23 April, 2014 - It’s the RVCA Junior Challenge, the most popular junior surfing contest in the country, and it’s taking place in RVCA’s back yard of Jeffreys Bay.

Lower Point in JBay to be precise is where it’s all going to be happening, where dreams will come true and hopes will be crushed, where the will be a few winners and a few more losers, where people will be celebrating alongside people who will be doing the opposite.

The opposite of celebrating, according to Google, is lamenting - So there you have it, there will be celebrating and lamenting going down at this contest, as well as some radical surfing. Airs, dropped wallets, wafts and punts and fin ditches and Larrys and Alley Oops and all the rest of the new-new school tricks.

(By the way, did you know, the origin of the term Alley Oop, used to describe fabulous moves like these of Kelly Slater and John John Florence, is derived from the French term allez hop!, which is the cry of a circus acrobat about to leap…)

There are going to be loads of good things happening in and around the contest as well, with a painting wall set up for the junior surfers to impress all with their artistic skills and graffiti ideas.

There will also be all the necessary tools and assistance for the junior surfers to be able to paint on their surfboards with whatever weird and wonderful murals and colours they like, or whatever messages that they want to shout out to the world, however political or anti-establishment they might be. All are totally acceptable in the RVCA world.

Anything else? Oh yes. We had some panic stations amongst a few of the more dozy U20 surfers in the country. Many of them were a little lackadaisical with getting their entries in, and when RVCA and JBU dropped a bomb that there was a wildcard going for the RVCA Super Trial event to the U20 winner, suddenly everyone wanted a slot in an event that was already full with a waiting list. Funny that.

Luckily RVCA and Surfing South Africa had a Plan B, and managed to get most of those snoozing surfers into the event without too much bribe money being exchanged. That person, who owns and wins the U20 division and gets the wildcard, could easily be set up for a legitimate lifetime professional surfing career after this event.

While talking about all the extraordinary little things that are going to make up the RVCA Junior Challenge, let’s not forget the Nixon Weird Board event, where the surfers will get a chance to rip and have fun on a collection of weird boards made especially for the occasion. There will be some futuristic and bizarre surfboards for this event, and some strange looking surfing as well no doubt.

"Junior surfing is where it’s at, and we at RVCA feel that this is the area and these are the surfers that we want to support," said RVCA's Chio Kraak. "We want the kids to have fun, to feel uninhibited at expressing themselves, to have a go at the art wall and at surfboard design, and to leave the event feeling enriched and happy, as well as having surfed some fun waves at the Lower Point. The kids are all champs already anyway.”

Surfers who are going to turn heads are surfers like Joshe Faulkner from Pellsrus in JBay, who placed 6th in the world at the recent ISA World Junior Games in Ecuador, and top-rated junior surfers like Slade Prestwich and local goofyfooter Steve Sawyer, who both managed to sneak their entries in last minute dot com.

International superstar Seb Williams from Mexico will be returning for the event that he made first appearance at last year. Seb is one of the top junior surfers in the world, and is the only international competitor in the event.

So if you’re in the area during the long weekend of 2 - 4 May, then pop in at the Lower Point and come and have a look around. Listen for loud music and laughter, and look for a bunch of kids having a good time, and you’ll find us.

The RVCA Junior Surfing Contest is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa. Surfing South Africa is a member of the sds and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), and recognised by the Dept. of Sport and Recreation as the national controlling body for surfing.